Southern Illinois Archive

An exciting weekend of Missouri Valley conference play is in the books as each series saw it’s teams square off in closely contested match-ups. Perhaps the most exciting was Missouri State and Illinois State’s Friday night opener, in which starters Nick Petree and Chris Razo exchanged strike-outs down the stretch before Petree was ultimately handed his first loss of the season. Perhaps the most controversial was Creighton’s opening game win over Bradley which saw a critical play at the plate, and a not completely unexpected ejection thereafter. Southern Illinois and Evansville saw their own pitchers’ duel on Friday night as starters Kyle Freeland and Cody Forsythe both went nine innings in a finish that would need extras to decide it. Meanwhile, Indiana State rescued a sweep at the hands of Wichita State after Sean Manaea, who was scratched from his Friday start, was able to pick up the win on Sunday. Read the rest of this entry »

The start of Missouri Valley Conference play was marked as it always seems to be: with a winter snow storm. All the teams in the Valley rushed to finish their series before Sunday (with the notable exception of Wichita State who had the fortune of playing in Hawaii—and ironically had Sunday’s game rained out). In the first weekend of conference play, Creighton took two of three on the road at Evansville, while Indiana State proved they will be a tough team to beat this season by taking all three from visiting Southern Illinois. Out of conference, Illinois State dropped their series to Eastern Illinois, Bradley lost their two games against Dartmouth in Florida, and although their basketball team is on a tear this March, the Wichita State baseball team struggled through their road series at Hawaii, picking up just one win in their four game series. Missouri State had the weekend off. Read the rest of this entry »